FAQs
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Fly to Barcelona BCN airport (1hr 30min away) or Girona GRO airport (25min away) .
From Barcelona BCN airport you can take a coach to Santa Cristina D’Aro where we will collect you. Or you can hire a car from Barcelona airport, or hire a taxi.
From Girona GRO airport a 25 minute taxi ride will get you to La Selva. Approximately €55.
There are also high-speed TGV trains and AVE trains linking Girona to all over Europe.
We are very happy to help plan your travel logistics with you.
If you are not sure where La Selva is you can locate it on this map
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Typically 8 to 10 people will be on the creative retreat or walking retreat, plus perhaps one or two non-paricipating friends.
‘Non-participating friends’ share a room with their partner, enjoy all the meals with everyone, but do not participate in the facilitated schedules.
We have rooms with twin beds and double beds.
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Our general creative retreats and residencies are open to creatives of all disciplines and levels, nature lovers, walkers, and anyone seeking inspiration, rest, and connection.
Our Creative Writing retreats are open to fiction and creative nonfiction writers of all levels of experience from complete beginners to thos who have been writing for years. Please contact us to see if these retreats are right for you.
The music/ composition retreats are open to creative musicians and composers of all levels. Please contact us to see if these retreats are right for you.
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The ongoing year-round residencies are for creatives in any medium or discipline who wish to create time and space to work on their projects.
There will be other creative people on the residencies, so mutual support and inspiration can be expected.
The residencies are self-catering.
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Yes, the residencies are self catering, whereas the retreats provide a professional chef for all meals.
Artists on residencies can avail of a twice-weekly organised trip to the supermarket for provisions, as well as a local supermarket which will deliver online purchases to the properties.
On the residencies we provide a cooked mael each Wednesday as this is check-in day. On Thursday morning there is an organised run to the supermarket for provisions.
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No. Our creative retreats welcome both professionals and passionate amateurs.
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The retreat days days include facilitated creative sessions, guided nature walks, shared meals, and free time for rest or work on personal projects.
A typical day might run as follows:
Self-serve breakfast
Independent work
Optional group activity 10.30-1.30
Nutritious lunch buffet
Afternoon free for work, rest, map-guided walking, or swimming
Three course evening meal together
The ongoing residencies are completely open to the requirements of the creative, with the option of socialising/ eating together in the communal dining room and living room areas.
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Yes, our walking retreats offer gentle to moderate walks and adapt routes to the group.
All the forest trails and coastal trails are all relatively even underfoot.
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We offer spacious, comfortable, peaceful lodging designed for rest and focus. There is a work-desk in every room for creative projects.
We offer accomodation with twin beds or double beds, so people can come on their own, with their partner, or with a friend. Note that the work-desk is only provided for participants. Non-participating partners are welcome to use the communal areas of the properties.
See examples of rooms here
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All meals are prepared by high-quality professional chefs such as Lucy Doherty using fresh, local ingredients.
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Bring comfortable walking shoes, creative tools, a very small backpack and clothing for outdoor activities.
Do bring a water bottle, sun hat, sunglasses, mosquito repellant (they are never bad) and sunscreen.
Also bring a swimsuit for sea-swimming and swimming in the swimming pool. The sea is lovely to swim in year-round although in January, February and March the sea temperature can be cooler at around 14 degrees.
During the summer - June, July, August, September - bring light clothes. The daytime temperatures can go into the 30s.
During the spring and autumn - April, May, October - bring layers, a jumper and a rain jacket. The daytime temeratures will be in the 20s but you may experience the very occasional shower.
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Yes, absolutely, we can cater for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free diets. Please give us advance notice of your dietary requirements.
Unfortunately we are not able to cater for those with nut allergies or other severe allergies.
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Our creative retreats and walking retreats generally run for 5 full days and 6 nights.
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The residencies from one week to eight weeks.
There are no residency spaces when retreats are running so be do check the calendar to see which dates are blocked out for retreats.
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We welcome applications from artists working in any discipline whose practice is low-impact and can be carried out at a work-table in a spacious room.
At present, the properties cannot support practices involving painting, wet media, or material-intensive processes, as there are no art-studio facilities.
There are several spaces with a digital piano and studio monitors for audio practitioners. The properties are quite soundproof however unfortunately we cannot accomodate audio practitioners who work at high volume. Only mid-level monitoring or headphone monitoring will work in the properties, plus instruments which are not too loud. Feel free to talk to us about your requirements.
High speed WIFI is available in several properties. In Casa Almeda and La Daina it is regular WIFI and it is only available in several rooms of the house. If your discipline requires WIFI let us know and we will allovcate the most appropriate space.
Ample electric sockets, natural light and heat throughout all of the properties.
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We encourage a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. The only things that we ask are for quiet hours from 11.30pm, and that during self-catering residencies the kitchen is kept clean.
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For retreats we have one bedroom in La Daina which is accessible on the ground floor.
In the next two years we are hoping to convert a downstairs room in Casa Almeda into a bathroom, which will allow easy ground-floor accessibility to all rooms required for a residency. However, at present we unfortunately cannot accomodate people with disabilities for residencies as there is a set of stairs to the first floor.
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15 to 20 minutes in a car will get you to a choice of 4 or 5 beautiful Costa Brava beaches:
Optional sea swims are an integral part of most of our retreats and residencies.